


I Need to Wake Up

by hondansadeensommar



Series: Multifandom Hurt/Comfort Oneshots [9]
Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Concussions, Gen, Headaches & Migraines, Hospitals, Hurt/Comfort, Major Character Injury, Memory Loss, Sleepwalking, Temporary Vision Loss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-25
Updated: 2019-06-25
Packaged: 2020-05-19 16:47:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19360831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hondansadeensommar/pseuds/hondansadeensommar
Summary: “Was I sleepwalking?” Jeongin asked, confused.“We think so,” Woojin replied.  “It’s the only logical explanation we can come up with for what happened… it looked like you fell from the ladder, based on where you were when we found you."





	I Need to Wake Up

Chaos.That was all Jeongin could comprehend as he tried to force his eyes open and found himself staring up at the ceiling of his room, with someone kneeling above him and holding his head and neck still.His head was pounding, and he couldn’t really process why his _hyung_ was holding his head and neck still or why his vision was too blurry to actually figure out who was in the room with him.All he could really hear were frantic voices, and he couldn’t even make out what was going on.

“Focus, Innie…” Woojin’s voice commented, pulling his attention just enough to get Jeongin focused on something other than the pain in his head, which he was starting to realize was radiating down his neck and back, too.“Innie, can you hear me?”

“It hurts, _hyung_ ,” Jeongin replied.

“What hurts, _aegi_?” Woojin asked.

“My head… my back…” Jeongin replied, closing his eyes.

“Hey, hey… don’t go to sleep on me, okay?You have to stay awake now,” Woojin commented.“Can you open your eyes?”

“It hurts…” Jeongin replied.

“I know, _aegi_ … but I really need to know you aren’t going to fall asleep on me,” Woojin replied.“Just for a little while, okay?Once we’re all sure that you’re okay, then you can sleep.”

Jeongin forced his eyes open, squinting at the brightness of the room because it was all that he could really make out.“What happened, _hyung_?”

“You don’t remember anything?” Woojin asked.

Jeongin tried to pull something, but the last thing he remembered was being in the truck, filming their music video.“The truck…”

“The… what truck, Innie?”Jeongin could hear Jisung’s voice nearby, although he wasn’t sure where his roommate was.

“From the video…” Jeongin began.

“The video…” Woojin began.“Innie, that was _weeks_ ago…”

“ _Aish_ … this is bad,” Jisung commented.

Jeongin tried to turn towards the sound of his roommate’s voice, but Woojin refused to let him move.“ _Yah_ … Innie, you can’t move, _aegi_.We don’t know if you hurt your back or not…”

“What…?” Jeongin asked.Even though he was struggling to process what the older man was saying, he knew that it wasn’t good.“ _Hyung_?”

“We don’t know how you fell, Innie,” Jisung replied.Jeongin saw another person move into his line of sight, and he assumed it was his roommate as he felt a hand gently taking his own.“I was asleep, and Woojin- _hyung_ didn’t come in here until he heard you hit the floor.We think you were trying to come down the ladder while you weren’t really awake.You wouldn’t wake up at first…”

“Felix went down to let the paramedics in… how is he?”Jeongin could hear Chan’s voice approaching, and he winced as the older man’s hurried footsteps shook the floor just enough to make his pain intensify.

“He just woke up… he’s been answering questions, but he doesn’t remember the last couple of weeks…” Woojin replied.“His head and back are both hurting…”

“ _Aish_ … Innie, we’ve got help coming, okay, _aegi_?” Chan commented.Jeongin felt the older man taking one of his hands and squeezing it gently.“Everything is going to be okay… we’re going to have them take you to the hospital to get checked out, and I’m going to ask about getting two beds in here instead of the bunks…”

“He’s in here…” Felix’s voice instructed, from somewhere near the door.

“Lix, go in my room with the other guys, okay?” Chan instructed, as Jeongin heard several new people coming into the room and moving around.

“We’re going to need one of you to answer a few questions…” an unfamiliar male voice began.Jeongin felt Chan squeezing his hand gently one more time, before the leader was gone out of his line of vision.

“That would be me… Jisung- _ah_ , go with Lix for now.”Jisung did the same as Chan, squeezing Jeongin’s hand for a brief moment before he left as well.

The other two members were quickly replaced by unfamiliar figures in dark uniforms,who immediately began checking Jeongin’s vital signs.“Can you tell me your name, kiddo?” a soft female voice asked, as someone wrapped a cuff around Jeongin’s upper arm.

“Yang Jeongin,” he replied, as the device around his arm began to tighten.“It hurts…”

“I know, Jeongin- _ssi_.I promise you, we aren’t going to do anything unless we have to, okay?” the woman asked.

“Okay…”

“Did he land on his neck?” a male voice asked.

“We aren’t sure… his roommate was asleep, and I didn’t come in until I heard him hit the floor,” Woojin replied.“I’ve been keeping him still just in case.He was unconscious for a few minutes, and I was worried he would hurt himself when he woke up…”

“Do you mind helping us keep him still for a few more minutes?” the man asked.

“Whatever you need… I have some first-aid training, and I’ll do whatever I can,” Woojin replied.

“Jeongin- _ssi_ , can you tell me what hurts?” the female voice asked, pulling his attention back from Woojin’s conversation with the other paramedic.

“My head… my back…” Jeongin replied.“The light really hurts…”

“Okay… can you follow my finger with your eyes?” the woman asked.Jeongin tried to find the woman’s hand, but it was just a lighter colored blob against the dark background of her uniform.“Jeongin- _ssi_?”

“I can’t see it… everything is too blurry…” Jeongin replied.Jeongin could hear the sharp intake of breath from someone nearby - he assumed Woojin, given the way the older man’s hands tensed slightly around his face.

“Jeongin- _ssi_ , do you normally wear glasses?” the male paramedic asked.

“No…”

“He probably needed them, but I could see well enough before this that no one really pushed about having his eyes checked,” Woojin added.“We were going to push him to go after we finished promotions…”

“That’s okay… blurred vision can happen with head injuries, and it sounds like you probably hit your head pretty hard,” she replied.“We’ll move on, and I’ll let the doctors at the hospital know to check your eyes this morning.I want you to try and squeeze my hands as hard as you can, okay?”

Jeongin felt someone taking his hands, and he did as he was told.“As hard as you can, Jeongin- _ssi_ …” the woman prompted.

“I am…” he replied, suddenly feeling overwhelmed with the idea that he wasn’t doing what the paramedics needed him to do.

“Okay… hey, you’re okay, Jeongin- _ssi_.You’re doing great,” the woman reassured.“This time I want you to use your feet to push against my hands, okay?When you feel me pushing on your feet, I want you to push back.”

Jeongin did as he was told, pushing back against the woman’s hands as hard as he could when she touched his feet.“Good… you’re doing really well, Jeongin- _ssi_.We’re going to start preparing youth go to the hospital.It’s really important that you let us do all the work, because we aren’t sure how you landed when you fell.Do you understand?”

“Yes,” Jeongin replied.

“Okay… we’re going to start by putting a collar on your neck to keep you still.It isn’t going to be comfortable, but it’s really important that we keep you as still as possible until we’re sure you haven’t fractured anything in your spinal column.If anything changes, or if anything starts to hurt, you need to tell us, okay?”

“Okay,” Jeongin replied, try to mentally prepare himself for whatever was about to happen.

The female paramedic was careful to make sure that Jeongin knew everything that was going on before they acted.While Jeongin wasn’t thrilled about the fact that Woojin was replaced by the paramedic that had been questioning Chan at first, the eldest stayed as close as he could and made sure to talk to Chan so that Jeongin could hear that they were still nearby.Finally, the team of paramedics had Jeongin strapped onto a backboard and then onto the gurney they had brought into the dorm with them.

“Can someone go with me?” Jeongin asked, as the paramedics were packing everything up in preparation to leave.

“I’m coming, Innie,” Chan’s voice commented.“Don’t worry, _aegi_ … we’re not going to leave you alone.”

 

***

 

Jeongin’s head still hurt, but he couldn’t help smiling as he felt someone stroking a hand through his hair.It had been a rough morning, between being poked and prodded and scanned for injuries and the fact that he was still in pain from his fall.Chan had been sent to the waiting room for most of the tests, and despite the fact that Jeongin had asked for his leader to be brought back, Jeongin hadn’t seen him again before he’d finally been told that he was allowed to go to sleep.Jeongin had been settled into a hospital room a little before lunchtime, where the nurses had been kind enough to dim the lights and push a dose of some kind of pain medication through his IV so that he could rest, and he had been out before the nurses had even left his room.

“ _Hyung_?” Jeongin asked, forcing his eyes open and turning his head as much as he could to try and find the older man.His first assumption was that it was Chan with him, as the leader had been at the hospital with him all morning.Jeongin couldn’t move much; his doctor had decided that he needed to wear a softer version of his previous neck brace for a while due to some strained muscles in his neck, and although he didn’t have any serious injuries to his back he was going to have some pretty spectacular bruising from hitting the floor.The only significant injury Jeongin had was a fairly bad concussion, which his doctor had confirmed was likely causing his vision issues.Things had cleared up somewhat, but it was still difficult for Jeongin to see anything clearly if it was more than a couple of inches away from his face.

“Hey, Innie,” Woojin replied.Jeongin smiled as he saw the older man come into his line of vision, realizing that Woojin’s face was actually somewhat recognizable now, even if it wasn’t as clear as Jeongin would have liked.“How are you feeling, _aegi_?”

“Tired… what time is it?” Jeongin asked.

“Almost five,” Woojin replied.“They’ll probably be bringing your dinner sometime soon, if you’re hungry.”Jeongin wrinkled his nose at the thought of food; he hadn’t really noticed it at first in all of the chaos, but once they’d gotten into the ambulance that morning he’d realized just how nauseated he was.Although thankfully he hadn’t actually vomited at all, Jeongin really wasn’t looking forward to having to eat.“The nurses said that you can have some nausea medication if you need it, so that you can eat.They also said that they want you to try and take the next dose of your pain medication by mouth after you eat, so they can get you off the IV.”

“I really don’t think that’s a good idea…” Jeongin replied, closing his eyes.

“That’s what you said an hour ago,” Woojin replied, chuckling slightly.

“Huh?”Jeongin couldn’t help feeling confused, because he didn’t remember waking up after he’d been brought to his room.

“It’s okay, Innie… they said that you’re probably going to have some issues with your memory until your brain has had the chance to start healing,” Woojin replied.“The first nurse that came in to give you another dose of pain meds had a hard time getting you to tell her your birthdate, because you could only remember that your birthday was in February…”

“That’s bad…” Jeongin began, trying to think to see if he could pull up the date.“It’s February 8th, 2001…”

“I know, _aegi_ … you got it right eventually.It just took you a little longer than normal,” Woojin replied.“It’s okay if there are some gaps in your memory.That’s normal after a head injury, and it’ll get better as your brain heals.The hospital is preparing some paperwork for school for you, so that you can get some time off and some help when you’re feeling up to going back.And the company is pulling you from everything until you’re better… they already released a statement that you’re going to be on hiatus for the rest of the promotion period…”

“ _Mianheyo_ , _hyung_ ,” Jeongin replied, closing his eyes.

“ _Yah_ … don’t apologize, _aegi_.This isn’t your fault,” Woojin replied, stroking a hand through Jeongin’s hair.“We should have pushed back against you sleeping on the top bunk from the beginning… we all know that you used to sleepwalk, and we should have known that the stress of promotions and school and everything else could cause you to start sleepwalking again.”

“Was I sleepwalking?” Jeongin asked, confused.

“We think so,” Woojin replied.“It’s the only logical explanation we can come up with for what happened… it looked like you fell from the ladder, based on where you were when we found you.The fact that you really only hurt your head doesn’t make a lot of sense, no matter how you fell.But at least your injuries weren’t more serious… we were all terrified that you had broken something and that you would be out for months, or maybe even permanently…”

Jeongin closed his eyes at the thought.It hadn’t even hit him that his career could have been over until Woojin brought it up, and he found himself fighting back tears almost immediately.“Hey, hey… it’s okay.You’re going to be okay, Innie,” Woojin commented, as soon as the older man realized what was going on.Jeongin could feel Woojin stroking his hair again, taking his hand and squeezing it gently.“You’re just going to need some time to rest, and then you’ll be back with us, just like before.Everything is going to be okay.”

“ _Hyung_ … c-can you stay with me?” Jeongin asked softly.“I don’t want to be alone.”

“I’ll stay as long as I can,” Woojin replied.“But your _eomma_ is going to be here soon… the company is bringing her up here to stay with you while you’re in the hospital, and they’re talking about letting you go home to Busan for a little while to heal.”

“They are?” Jeongin asked.

“Yeah… someone brought up the fact that your parents’s house would be quieter than the dorm.And you aren’t going to be allowed to go to school for a while anyway, so it isn’t like you _have_ to be in Seoul for anything for a week or two,” Woojin replied.“You can go home and let your _eomma_ spoil you for a while… doesn’t that sound like a good idea?”

Jeongin nodded as much as he could, given the brace around his neck.“Yeah… that sounds really good,” he admitted.“ _Eomma_ always says that she’ll cook me _so-makchang-gui_ when I come home to visit…”

“See?It isn’t ideal, but at least there’s going to be something good that comes out of all of this,” Woojin replied, squeezing his hand.“Get some rest, okay?I’ll stay until your _eomma_ gets here.”


End file.
